The Altador Cup
by Fooruman the Great
Summary: The highly awaited Altador Cup has come. Who will win? Only one of 16 teams will walk away with the cup. One chapter for each match in the game.
1. Round 1: Krawk Island vs Altador

DISCLAIMER: NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia  
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2006.

Round 1

The round between Altador and Krawk Island was one of the most anticipated of the first round. With rabid fans of both teams storming the ticket booths, causing two Kikos to be killed by trampling, the tickets were sold for the highest prices in the auction house, as not only was it the first match to be played, it was also between two very evenly matched teams. With more illegal gambling houses popping up than could be closed, the Altador Cup Committee had their hands full calling for undercover Chia Police operation.

The game began as all did, with the captains shaking hands. "Trapper" Remis smiled at his fellow captain, "Dasher" Soley, who returned it. The captains then returned to their teams, for a one-minute huddle to discuss strategy. And then, the game began.

Krawk Island had chosen the 2-2 formation, whereas Altador went for a 1-3, indicating that, as always, they would be playing heavy defence.

The Altador Marching Band cued the Yooyu to present itself with a drum roll. Proudly, the Yooyu leaped into the air, as the lights turned on, revealing it to be a Fire Yooyu, which flashed a smile at the audience, and curled itself into a ball.

The whistle blew, and two forwards headed for the ball. Ealyn Hawkshanks of Krawk Island got it first, narrowly snatching it away from Altador's Winberto Seliz. Ealyn quickly passed the ball away to Krawk Island's Nitri Cassale. Salayne Ritad, Altador's goalkeeper, yelled that Soley was running across the field, possibly ready for a pass.

In an attempt to prevent this from occurring, Cawley Embith and Timu began to cover Cassale, who faked a run through them, then quickly turned, passing it to Garven Hale, who passed it to Ealyn Hawkshanks, who dodged a block from Winberto, and passed it away to Soley. Soley gritted his teeth, and let the ball loose. Salayne Ritad dived, and caught it in the tip of his fingers. Roaring applause came from the Altador side of the stands, with outrageous shouts from the Krawk Island side.

The teams returned back to their starting positions, as the lights dimmed, and the Yooyu emerged from a trapdoor. As the lights renewed themselves, the Mutant Yooyu revealed itself, flying into the air in a ball, only to be grabbed by Ealyn Hawkshanks, who ran for the Altador side of the arena, Soley following behind.

However, Altador retaliated, sending "Trapper" Remis and Timu, the team's two greatest blockers to cover Soley, making him unable to receive one of Ealyn's famous passes. Ealyn quickly rethought his strategy, and threw the ball at a defender, Hoke Lemtry. Lemtry caught it, but was tackled by Winberto Seliz, who passed the ball to Cawley Embith. Embith passed to Remis, who attempted to pass to Seliz, who had lined himself up against the Krawk goalpost. However, being a mutant, the ball flew out of control, into the hands of Soley, who was promptly tackled by "Trapper" Remis.

Remis faked a shot from the left of the Krawk goal, switched direction, and slammed the ball into the net, as Hale fell to the ground, his jump to catch the ball a failure. The stand erupted in cheers.

The teams again returned to their starting positions, Remis giving a high five to Seliz. The next Yooyu was a bit too hasty, and revealed itself to be Snow before the drum roll had even begun. Altador was taken by surprise by the unexpected start, but Krawk Island had been around longer, and was used to such accidents. Ealyn quickly caught the ball at the beginning, and passed to Dasher. Dasher weaved himself through various Altador members, but was tackled by Seliz. Seliz attempted to move to the Krawk goal net, but was blocked by a triple-team by Krawk Island team members. Changing his course, he pretended to attempt going through the left side of the triple-team, but changed his course, and attempted to dodge through the right side. But Krawk Island was used to feints such as this, and tackled him, Lemtry getting the ball, and running to the Altador net. Surprisingly, he dodged several traps by the opponent, and tried to pass to Hawkshanks for a goal, but his hands had frozen to the snowball. He tried in vain to shake it off, but to no avail, until Seliz gave it a large whack, sending it flying out of Lemtry's hands. Lemtry screamed in pain, and the referee blew her whistle angrily. Seliz had violated Rule #42 in the rulebook, "thou shalt not injure thy opponent by the smacking of the snowball, for it will be an abomination unto thee". Krawk Island was given a foul point for the outrage, and Orlae Raniks, the team's substitute defender, was bought in to replace Lemtry.

Orlae Raniks had been the subject of much controversy in the past, with reports of dark alley duped item dealings; the member was not in the team's regular lineup. However, Orlae was still a good defender, and, although she was only called onto the field once every few matches, she still trained every day, and kept in high physical condition, no matter how little she played.

The teams again moved back from where they started, and the Yooyu proudly flew into the sky, revealing itself to be Fire. And the game was on. Winberto Seliz got the ball first, and passed it to Remis, who passed it to Embith, who passed it to Timu, who passed it back to Seliz. Krawk Island fans groaned, Altador was setting up for their infamous "pass trap", a ploy to take the last remaining seconds off the clock, then either score at the last minute, or force a tie. The crowd turned rowdy, the Krawk side of the crowd yelling out rude comments to the Altador team, the Altador side of the crowd yelling the same to the Krawk side of the crowd.

Soley called Hawkshanks and Raniks over to talk. "I've always been a big fan of the Mystery Island team – you know that move they do – the One-Timer Spike?" The others nodded in agreement. "Good. We're going to do it, but we'll need to send Cassale in to disrupt the trap. We can't have them force a tie; they have to try and score. Then Raniks, you catch the ball, spike it to Hawkshanks, who'll pass to me, and I'll slam it in. We'll lose all our defence, but Hale is the best goalie in the game, he can block anything they try. GO!"

Nitri Cassale ran into the middle of the four Altadors, who were still passing the ball, rendering Cawley Embith unable to pass it to Timu. Instead, Embith flew past the other players, beating her wings ferociously, and throwing the ball at the goal.

Raniks practically flew into the air, pushing her Techo legs as far as they would go. She caught the ball in her fingertips, and slammed it with extreme force into the ground, causing it to bounce up over the head of Timu, and into the hands of Hawkshanks, standing to the goal's left with Dasher. Hawkshanks one-timed, and passed to Dasher, who slammed the ball into the goal.

The stands erupted into cheers. Even a few Altador fans were cheering, impressed at the sheer difficulty of the move.

Barely any time was left on the clock, but Seliz caught the Mutant ball as it presented itself anyway, hoping to possibly adjust the score to a tie, and preserve his team's honour. He dodged all four of his opponents, and threw the ball into the goal with mind-bending force.

Or he would have, if Garven Hale hadn't neatly blocked the scoring attempt, not even needing to dive to block the ball.

And the three minutes of Gameplay were over. Krawk Island's fans rose to their feet in a standing ovation, as flowers, confetti, and marriage proposals flew from the air from delighted fans. Seliz swiped at the air with a claw in anger, but still smiled as his captain, Remis, shook hands with Soley. The teams then journeyed outside, to sign autographs for their joyous fans.


	2. Round 1: Kiko Lake vs Brightvale

DISCLAIMER: NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia  
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2006.

Round 1

Kiko Lake's match against Brightvale made several news headlines, mainly because the Altador Cup Committee was searching the world for the best referees, wanting to hire 3 to keep a good eye on Brightvale. Critics said this was a bad move, most famously, the quote from Kiko Lake's reserve goalkeeper, Leelo Paine in the Neopian Times: "Brightvale will cheat no matter what you do".

Tickets did not sell out as quickly as in the first match, as neither of the teams was particularly noteworthy. However, many Altador Cup fans that did not care for either of the teams were desperate for front row seats, to see if they could catch Brightvale cheating.

Also, tickets in the deluxe box sold out in seconds, as rumour had it that King Hagan, who did not usually support organized sports, was attending the match in person. However, this did not end up being true, and the Neopian Times was briefly boycotted for false information, until it agreed to give White Weewoos to all the protestors.

The captains shook hands; Ditan Colb chuckled nervously as he eyed Reb Weemelott, who flashed a wicked grin. Colb gulped.

The captains then walked back to their teams for a brief huddle. After a short period of time, the teams announced that they had both decided to play 1-3.

The lights dimmed, and the proud Yooyu emerged from the trapdoor, with its head down. As the lights came back on, it proudly shot itself into the air, showing that it emitted a burning heat. The Fire Yooyu rolled itself into a ball, and was promptly caught by Brightvale's Kayn Hireck, who gave a wheeze, and ran for the Kiko Lake goal as fast as he could. The younger and faster Relle Felson ran after him. As he got close enough, and crouched to tackle the Skeith, he suddenly fell over his own feet, and the stands were abuzz with anger. No one had actually seen Hireck trip his opponent, but everyone knew it had happened. However, as no referee had actually seen the move been performed, Hireck kept on running towards the goal, but the ball was seized out of his hands by "Poke" Cellers. "Squeaky" Tressif attempted to block, but the ball flew over his head, as Cellers passed it to Helmo Timm, who dodged a tackle from Montecito, and swerved to avoid Weemelott's elbow. Timm gave a hand gesture to her team, who interpreted it, her fellow three forwards and defenders moving after her. Timm reached the goal, and, as Tressif moved to take the ball away, passed it to Cellers, who skid past an opponent, and passed the ball to Kitah. All four players lined up in front of the Brightvale goal, and began quickly passing the ball back and forth, no player holding the ball for more than two seconds.

However, Moncetito had studied his opponents rigorously, and knew what they were doing. They were making sure no one knew which member would attempt to score. Quickly, Moncetito rammed into Kitah, then slammed Felson to the ground. Cellers caught the ball that had flown out of Felson's hands, and passed it to Timm, who attempted scoring. Orie Dinelle did not catch the ball, but instead slammed one hand into it, the ball sticking to it. She quickly passed the ball away to Reb Weemelott, who had gotten to the other side of the field. Cellers quickly ran across the field to intercept Reb, but Reb rammed his elbow into Cellers, who screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. All three referees angrily blew their whistles, and ran over to investigate Reb's elbow, all sure they would catch him with the piece of metal in it this time.

Reb quickly slid the metal out of his elbow pad, and, with some sleight of hand, deposited it in his shirt pocket with no one noticing. None of the referees found the metal in his elbow, and apologized to him for the inconvenience. Cellers could still play, and play resumed, Reb standing slightly farther away from the goal this time. Reb passed to Hireck, who lept into the air, and threw the ball directly at the ceiling. It hit it, bounced off, bounced on the ground, hit the wall, and bounced away from the wall, into the far right of the goal-net. Colb lay on the ground, his attempted dive to catch the ball a failure.

Reb gave a smile to Hireck, as they moved back to where they were before. The Yooyu leapt up again, showing its Faerie colours. Helmo Timm caught the ball, and dodged a headbutt from Montecito. She passed to Relle Felson, who was blocked by Tressif and Montecito. While Relle searched for a way to evade them, Reb tackled him. The ball flew into the air, flying above the heads of everyone who tried to catch it, speeding past Cellers and Kitah, bouncing off the wall and speeding past the whole Brightvale team, bouncing off the wall again, and going back to Kiko Lake, until finally Timm leaped up and caught the ball. Timm sped towards the Brightvale goal, but Tressif snatched the ball out of her hands, and attempted a shot at the goal from far away. The ball curved away, going nowhere near the goal, and hitting Meela Kitah in the head, which no one seemed to notice.

The ball continued to speed away from everyone, until finally it was caught by Weemelott, with five seconds remaining on the clock, Weem threw the ball as hard as he could at the goal, where Colb blocked it just as the clock hit 0:00.

Brightvale raised their hands in the Brightvale Salute, as their Kiko Lake opponents mumbled annoyance, but went outside to sign autographs for their disappointed fans.


	3. Round 1: Darigan Citadel vs Terror Mt

DISCLAIMER: NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia  
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2006.

(Author's Note: I am a Darigan team member, but I have tried my best to have this story show no traces of bias. To quote Neopets: "Darigan's defenders relentlessly pounded their counterparts from Terror Mountain, breaking their spirit early in the match and making them look unusually disorganized (even by Terror Mountain standards) the rest of the way. It didn't take long for this match to turn into a rout, and once it did, it was obvious that Terror Mountain's players had given up and were simply "mailing this one in."" Sounds like they got pwned to me, so.)

(Another author's note: You know what makes me happy? Reviews, either good or bad. So, if you're reading this and you haven't reviewed, I would really like it if you did so. I want to know that people are actually reading this.)

Round 1

Terror Mountain fans had groaned when they learned their team would be up against the Darigan Citadel in the first round. When the two teams had a friendly match earlier in the year, Darigan had clobbered them 5-1, on Terror Mountain's home stadium, no less. So when the Neopian Times first announced the round matchings, even the biggest of Terror Mountain teams were hesitant to buy tickets just to see their team be clobbered. Even when NTV interviewed players lined up to buy tickets, several Darigan players commented on how they were going to have an "easy win". Terror Mountain fans retaliated by selling buttons, t-shirts, and other merchandise bashing Darigan and supporting Terror Mountain, and donating the proceeds to the Terror Mountain team. These were shut down after repeated organized attacks by Darigan fans, and also the Chia Police finding they didn't have a peddling permit.

The pregame hype had mostly ended by the day of the match, although Chia Police were stationed in many parts of the stands, just in case a riot broke out. Pamphlets were handed out explaining the team line-up, mentioning that Tico Tems had a bad case of NeoPox, and was being replaced by Vaydo Pohz. The two teams began their huddle, then, after exactly one minute, broke apart. Both teams had decided to play 3-1. The Yooyu proudly waited to reveal itself as the suspense grew to its peak, then blasted itself into the air, grinning at the audience, showing off its proud Fire colour. It then rolled itself into a ball, and was grabbed by Terror Mountain's Prytariel, who was instantly tackled by Darigan's Kep Bonnefie. The ball flew into the air, and was caught by Darigan's Tandrak Shaye. Shaye ran for the net, but was blocked by Rinok Fetel. Tandrak looked at him for a moment, and then ran past him. Rinok swore, and vowed to find a way to combine tactics with his natural skill. Selwick Phoss stood between Fetel and the goalnet. Fetel rolled his eyes, and stepped over Selwick. Selwick thought quickly, and jumped up, slamming the ball back to the Darigan side, where Layton Vickles caught it, dodged Fitel, then Pohz, then Phoss, then Prytariel, until all the Terror Mountain members were chasing after him but the goalkeeper. Vickles passed to Shaye, who slammed the ball into the net. The 275-pound goalkeeper hobbled after it, getting nowhere near the ball before it had rested neatly inside the net.

Terror Mountain groaned, and, along with Darigan, returned back to the start. The next ball was Faerie, and zoomed around the arena for ten seconds before Vaydo Pohz jumped up and caught it. She ran past Kep Bonnefie, but was blocked by Tormo Frein. Pohz attempted to pass to Prytariel, who was in position, but Frein intercepted the pass, and passed to Vickles, who slid past Phoss, and passed to Shaye, who attempted to score, but, being Faerie, the ball flew off-course, and into the hands of Rinok Fitel. Rinok was being blocked by Frein, so threw the ball over Frein's head. Frein caught it, and passed to Shaye, who threw the ball into the goal net, the bumbling Chia again failing to catch it.

Prytariel sighed. "You know, I think we just lost any chance we might have had of winning." She whispered to Pohz. Pohz nodded, and they slowly returned back to 3-1.

The next ball was Fire, and was caught by Shaye, who threw the ball at a wall. It bounced off and into Terror Mountain's goal-net. "Are we even trying anymore?" Phoss whispered to Fitel. "I don't think so." Fitel replied.

To make a long story short, Darigan won, 13-0. Terror Mountain did not even bother to go outside and sign autographs, instead, they went home, and spent the next twenty-four hours practicing nonstop. Darigan, instead, was rejoicing, as they had scored their highest scores yet, although the world record was held by the Kiko Lake team, who, when against Tyrannia in a friendly match, won 17-1. Darigan partied long into the night, spending several thousand dubloons on grog at the Golden Dubloon.


End file.
